What Is Visionary Fiction (and Why Do I Write It)?

When I mention that I’ve written books of visionary fiction, the response I usually get is along the lines of “What exactly is it that?”

I don’t give the same answer to everyone. For example, I might say, “It’s fiction that includes a metaphysical element.”

Or “It’s a type of speculative fiction that is hopeful or transcendent.”

Or “It uses a fictional story to communicate a philosophical message.”

Or even, “It’s fiction that can expand your consciousness.”

(Genres as Crushers of Creativity.)

The fact that I find myself juggling these definitions based on the person I’m speaking with should tell you a lot about the current state of visionary fiction. Moreover, it’s easy to conflate visionary fiction with a range of similar genres—metaphysical fiction, New Age fiction, mystical fiction, fantasy, and science fiction, to name a few.

None of this is surprising when you consider how relatively obscure visionary fiction is within the world of publishing of 2024. Since I have been writing it—and now that I’ve won several awards in the designated category of visionary fiction—I’d like to help clarify some things and offer a few suggestions for anyone interested in writing visionary fiction, or just anyone paying attention to the evolution of genres.

For our purposes here—even if there is little agreement about this in the publishing world—I will define visionary fiction as books in which the understanding and expansion of human consciousness drives the story, making it more than an escapist read.

My own interest in visionary fiction goes back to my 20s, when I had what could be described as a spontaneous spiritual awakening. Without any precipitating substance. One day I was looking at reality in the concrete manner I always had, and the way it seemed everybody around me did, and the next I was experiencing a reality in which everything was made of light. Nothing was not light. I had no background to understand this, so I turned to my local bookstore, looking for books that addressed metaphysical questions (that is, questions about the nature of reality).

This was the 1970s, and pickings were slim. The first book I found helpful was Bucke’s Cosmic Consciousness, originally published in 1901. Books by spiritual teachers from different traditions followed—all nonfiction.

There was a smattering of fiction as well, even if it wasn’t formally tagged as metaphysical—for example, Hesse’s Bead Game, Bach’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull, and Castaneda’s The Teachings of Don Juan. These authors wrote to help fellow humans understand the most profound metaphysical questions, and did so largely outside the established channels of religion. Their books, which are still considered classics, were lifesavers for me.

Over the following decades, metaphysical bookstores expanded their presence, and more mainstream bookstores added metaphysical sections. And of course, publishers put out more metaphysical books. Self-publishing was taking off, and some self-published metaphysical books were so successful that they were picked up by major publishers.

Also during that period, nonfiction far outstripped fiction in metaphysical bookstores. The East West Bookstore, which I frequented in the 1990s, had one shelf of fiction and an entire building filled with nonfiction. Why was this? My theory is that authors viewed nonfiction as more convincing, and feared their ideas would be dismissed if presented as fiction.

Note that I’m using the term metaphysical. That’s because I hadn’t heard the term visionary.

While researching for this article, the first mention I found of visionary fiction was in The American Theosophist, where an author claimed in 1982 that Renee Weber, a professor of philosophy at Rutgers University, had recently coined the term. It was many years, however, before it moved from academia to the publishing industry.

In the 1990s, I ran a small publishing company focused on metaphysical books. Our distributor was Hampton Roads. HR put itself on the map in a big way with Conversations With God. Having an overnight bestseller meant they couldn’t print enough copies to meet demand and were forced to sell Conversations to a larger publisher. The proceeds allowed them to set up new imprints, and Frank DeMarco, one of the founders, told me he wanted to start a visionary fiction imprint to show that such books can be fiction. Even if he didn’t coin the term—though, as I recall, he thought he did—he gave it a seat in the publishing industry.

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Much as we saw visionary fiction as the wave of the future and expected it to flourish, that didn’t happen. After a flurry of activity in the 1990s, it faded with the turning of the century. Why did that happen? I haven’t seen a convincing explanation, but I think it was due to the convergence of a variety of factors, such as the greater popularity of fantasy and science fiction and the waning of the New Age movement. Arguably, when you consider how much the publishing world at large has expanded, visionary fiction is more obscure now than when Frank tried to get it off the ground.

Nor did the rise of genres, including the proliferation of genres similar to visionary fiction, help. When I search for visionary fiction on Goodreads, I get primarily books I would call science fiction, including techno-thrillers about robots, space travel, cyberpunk. In fairness, their authors are not necessarily calling them visionary fiction; rather, Goodreads is pulling them up due to the dearth of actual visionary fiction.

So what do I suggest?

1. We should put in a greater effort to establish genre definitions. While I recognize there is no single formal mechanism for that, I can do my own small part by settling on one definition for visionary fiction when I respond to questions of “What exactly is it that?”
2. I would limit metaphysical books to nonfiction. There is an enormous body of nonfiction centered on spirituality, philosophy, and the metaphysical questions of human existence, and fiction gets lost when combined with it. Other fiction genres are not subsumed by a related nonfiction genre, so why should metaphysical fiction? It deserves its own category.
3. I propose visionary fiction be recognized as the official counterpart to metaphysical nonfiction. The virtual nonexistence of a visionary nonfiction genre reinforces the appropriateness of visionary for fiction.
4. I would also establish standards for visionary fiction. On the one hand, visionary fiction can incorporate elements as diverse as sci-fi, magical realism, fantasy, or literary fiction. On the other hand, if its metaphysical element is not central, a book shouldn’t qualify as visionary fiction. A story about angels, for example, isn’t visionary fiction merely because it has angels; a paranormal romance isn’t visionary fiction unless the characters grapple with metaphysical questions.
5. I’d retire the New Age fiction category. It’s outdated. Worse, many books categorized as New Age are perpetrators of cultural appropriation, taking Indigenous wisdom and watering it down for a popular audience. We should know better.

Ultimately, I believe the world can benefit from visionary fiction with good storytelling that inspires readers to think about deeper questions. We have no shortage of books to help us escape; why not use some of our moments of escape to form a vision of life that better meets the challenges of this century?